CORPUS CHRISTI - There is not a ton of hope left for the Dallas Mavericks this season.

Thanks to the sudden resurgence of the Lakers, who now hold the eighth seed in the Western Conference, the Mavs would need another team, like Houston or Golden State, to drop out of the playoff picture for them to make it to the post-season, and this is assuming that they outperform the Portland Trail Blazers and Utah Jazz down the stretch in order to get there.

Needless to say, every game that the Mavericks play from now on is a make-or-break game, with a loss on the wrong night possibly killing off their post-season chances. Their odds are already slim, sitting three games back of the Lakers with 19 games to play, so when the Milwaukee Bucks began to chip away at the Mavs' double digit lead late in the fourth quarter, you began to wonder whether this was a collapse that would prematurely end Dallas' season.

It is in those moments when Dallas would normally turn to Dirk Nowitzki to carry them home, but for a four minute stretch during crunchtime last night, Dirk sat on the bench as Rick Carlisle riskily got him some rest during danger time.

It'd be natural to assume that O.J. Mayo, who has used up the plurality of Dallas' possessions this season, would be the one to carry the offense until Dirk returned to the floor. But for whatever reason, Mayo has been really poor in close games this season. In the final five minutes of five point games this season, Mayo is shooting just 40% from the field and turning the ball over on 15% of his possessions (a 3% rise from his usual turnover rate), according to the NBA's Stats database. Perhaps becoming more calm in tense situations is the next step in Mayo's learning curve, but this season he hasn't been reliable in close games.

So who did Dallas lean on when the pressure was on last night? None other than future Hall-of-Famer Vince Carter, who has quietly been the Mavs' second best player all season long and a legit Sixth Man of the Year candidate.

The Mavericks had a 14-point lead with nine minutes left in the game, but the Bucks cut it to seven with under six to play. This is when Carter began to takeover with an 11-point crunchtime surge that helped the Mavericks keep the Bucks at bay.

Carter's first big bucket came with 5:30 left in the fourth. Monta Ellis had just missed a three that would have cut the lead to four and Dirk was still in the game. Dallas came down and ran one of their predominant offensive plays, with Carter setting a pin down screen for Dirk on the left side of the floor. Milwaukee defended the play extremely well, not ceding an inch of space for Dirk to get a shot off. But this is where those "flow" principles of Rick Carlisle's offense come into play.

Once Dirk makes the catch off the pindown, he gives it to Carter on left wing and they flow into a handoff/pick-and-roll two-man game that induces a switch from Milwaukee, putting Ekpe Udoh out on Carter and Mike Dunleavy on Dirk in the post. Normally you'd see Carter allow time for Dirk to get position and then make an entry pass, but Carter got Udoh off-balance when he turned the corner on the hedge, so Vincesanity decided to hoist up a three-pointer that would put Dallas back up double digits.

Milwaukee would fire right back, though, with Dunleavy hitting a three and Redick getting a lay-up to go, cutting Dallas' lead to five with 4:39 left in the game and forcing Carlisle to call a timeout. With Dirk on the bench, the Mavs used some more flow action to get a good look from deep.

The Mavs came down the floor with Jae Crowder setting a pindown screen for Carter in attempt to get him post position on the left side of the floor. When that did not net good positioning for Carter, he attempted to flow into a pick-and-roll with Mike James, but then quickly decided to simply go and get the ball up top. Brandan Wright started making his way towards Carter as if to set a screen, but then Carter swung the ball to Mayo on the right wing.

Milwaukee's defense was in scramble mode because of how aggressive their bigs were defending the Mavs' assumed pick-and-roll action, so a Mayo/Wright side pick-and-roll on the right wing caused a bit of confusion. Wright's man, superstar defender Larry Sanders, jumped towards the right block to contain Mayo if he drove baseline, but instead Mayo went middle. Mayo would have had a wide open pull-up jumper from the top of the key had Dunleavy not helped off Carter on the left wing.

The problem: Carter was feeling it, and Mayo made the right read and a great pass to Carter, making Dunleavy pay for helping with a good shooter just one pass away from an open look. Dunleavy even rotated back quickly and was in sound defensive position, but Carter was already in rhythm on the catch and buried his second straight deep three from the same spot.

A pair of Monta Ellis lay-ups would put the Bucks back down six with 2:40 left in the game, but with Carter feeling it, it wouldn't matter. Dallas came up the floor knowing that Carter was the best option on the court, and they ran a play to get him an open look from the three-point line.

Carter started the play on the right wing, sweeping across the top of the key using a pair of high cross screens from Wright and Crowder. After catching it on the left wing, Wright and Crowder set up for another double screen - this time a staggered pick-and-roll - that caught the Bucks off guard. By the time Udoh realized that Dunleavy was going to be taken out of the play by a second screen, he was too late to make a meaningful contest on Carter, who drilled his third straight three.

And because he was feeling good last night, Vince even threw up this crazy lay-up to put the Bucks' comeback attempt at bay once again with just over a minute left.

Carter has had moments like this all season for the Mavericks, and he is having what is easily his best season in a handful of years.

The difference between Dallas' performance when Carter is on the floor and when Carter is on the bench is monumental. When Carter is off the floor, the Mavericks score 99.7 points per 100 possessions, which is about the same efficiency as Orlando's offense, which ranks sixth worst in basketball. When Carter is on the floor, the Mavs score 106.3 points per 100 possessions, which would rank between the Los Angeles Lakers and Clippers as the 7th best offensive rating in the league over the course of a full season.

That is a net of +6.6 points per 100 possessions, one of the largest positive offensive deferential in basketball this season and the biggest I saw when looking at the best 6th Man of the Year candidates. Carter also has a positive net differential on defense for the Mavs, as teams score 2.4 points per 100 possessions less when Carter is on the floor.

After spending the past four seasons with teams that loved to jack threes (the Magic, Suns and Mavs), Carter has finally turned into a great three-point shooter; he's attempting close to a career high in threes per game (4.9 a night) and making them at a career high 41% clip. Carter's emergence as a serious three-point threat has given the Mavericks a great spot-up shooting threat that can work on or off the ball in Dallas' pick-and-roll heavy attack, and the fluidity of Carlisle's offense has made it easy for Vince to have his most efficient season perhaps ever.

According to Synergy Sports Technology, of players with at least 700 offensive possessions this season (Carter has 795), Carter ranks ninth in basketball with his 1.034 points per possession rate, a tick above Chris Paul (1.034 PPP) and a good amount better than guys like Stephen Curry, Carmelo Anthony and Dwyane Wade. Now, Carter doesn't change a game in the ways those guys do, but it puts in perspective how valuable Carter has been offensively for the Mavs this season.

And he's not just standing on the perimeter and shooting threes; in fact, the largest portion of his offensive possessions this season have come as the ball-handler in the pick-and-roll. Carter hasn't run this many pick-and-rolls since he was playing with Dwight Howard in Stan Van Gundy's spread pick-and-roll offense a few seasons back. Carter has finished 217 possessions as the ball-handler in pick-and-rolls this season per Synergy; out of guys with similar or bigger workloads, only James Harden has scored more points per possession, and Carter is tied with Tony Parker for second at .972 PPP.

And when you expand it to include all of his pick-and-roll plays including passes, Carter ranks 7th amongst similarly used players in PPP production at 1.012. The names above him are: Paul, Harden, LeBron, Parker, Durant and Ginobili. Behind him: Wade, George Hill and Kobe. Not bad company. Carter has not only been good at creating good offense for himself off pick-and-rolls, the Mavs are shooting 48% off his passes when he turns the corner on screens.

There is no questioning the impact that Carter has had for the Mavericks this season, and he's been their most consistent offensive player all season long. For someone that won't have a unanimous vote in his favor when his name comes up on the Hall-of-Fame ballot, his resurgence this season is not totally insignificant, especially if he wins 6MoY, and it's nice to know that 'ole Vince still has a little bit more amazing left in the tank.

I'm thinking he's at 75% man/25% amazing now. For a 36-year-old in his 15th season, that's not bad at all.